Sonic Jam Review By: Bahn
Senior Editor of "GameNet Magazine".
(A well designed, and informative site in Anime, and Video
Games.)
Anyone who tells you that Sonic didn't put Sega on the map obviously doesn't know Sega, because of Sonic's introduction to the gaming world, platform games, including Mario inspired a new aspect in platform games. Was it because of the mock 'blast-processing' that Sega used? The fact that Sonic offered more ingenuity? Or maybe that he just looked better than Mario? Perhaps it was all three reasons...simply put, Sonic was just awesome. How dumb I feel as I sat here writing this review thinking: Why in the world did I ditch my Genesis? (Not to mention all of my Sega games, but that's another story) I was overjoyed once I heard that Sonic Jam would be released.
For any Sonic fan, this game is pure heaven, why? Well, not only did Sega decide to put all of Sonic's adventure's on one disc, (Sonic CD being the exception); but included alot of things that we just don't deserve. For starters, your treated to a cool CG video before the game starts, then after starting up the game...you can choose from Sonic 1-3 and Sonic and Knuckles (Sonic 1 now includes a Spin dash option), full-color manuals in English or Japanese, a sound test, tons of hi-res art of Sonic and his pals, including Robotnik and his baddies. Plus, a series of videos showing the Japanese commercials of all of the Sonic games ever produced...yet what really brings it home is the fact that you also have the ability to save your games, set the difficulty levels, choose to play the bonus stages, beat them all, then start the game, and wait...there's more. How bout a 3D-type world which you access for accessing all the aforementioned options which doubles as a full playable game...now that's a package.
The best part about re-playing the classics, there's never no load time. I have truly been blessed Sega (*sniff*). The only perk that I noticed cut corners were the bonus stages in Sonic 2...they appear to have cut back on the resolution to allow the level to maintain the speed. Other than that, Sega has delivered a true compilation for that Sonic fan who misses their games (or were dumb enough like me to ditch their Genesis) I wish that Saturn would've released another game on a 2D format as this game would become stale to you if you already played it dozens of times and wanted some new perks for even bothering to invest in this game. Perhaps when the new Sega system is released...Sonic will see the light of day again and then, we can all look forward to... The Next Level.
RATINGS
GRAPHICS 9
SOUND 8
INNOVATION 8
CONTROL 10
REPLAY VALUE 7
OVERALL 8.5
